Like many of you, I was saddened to learn of another fire in downtown Colon. Another piece of local history – Gone!

As of right now, I don’t know what caused the fire that took out the historical building currently occupied by Curly’s. I’m sure we’ll know soon, but no matter the cause it won’t bring it back.

It was just a few short years ago that the famed Colon Opera House was lost. Of course, it was the Citizens Bank, but most people knew it as the old opera house. Regardless, it was a core part of Colon at one time as was the spot occupied by Curly’s.

I applaud all who came to help. It was a reminder to us all just how good a people we truly are. Colon was brought together by this fire and will move forward together, too.

Facebook proved a uselful tool Friday when it wasn’t feasible to go and see for yourself the fire. It was touching to see all the posts pouring in about Colon and to see the photos of those helping to contain the fire. It was also made known that the famed autographed photos of magicians showcasing the city’s magic legacy were mostly saved from the walls of Five Star Pizza, too.

I can’t help but think how fortunate Sturgis and some of the other neighboring communities have been in regards to their downtowns. It’s becoming all too common, though, for something like this to occur. It also wasn’t all that long ago that Gobles lost much of it’s downtown to a blazing fire.

The real story here just might be how secure are we really when it comes to aging infrastructure? How often are buildings like these evaluated? And, what constitutes them as safe? Or, do we even have a program in place to make sure wiring, plumbing, support beams, brick/masonry, and what have you are up to par?

I’d be curious know what kinds of policies are in place to make sure things like what happened to Curly’s and the downtown of Gobles from occurring in Sturgis.